Oxford v Swindon pre match

[THE FLASH]

I would love to be excited about this game, but I am with RobT, I struggle to get excited about anything football or Swindon Town in it's current guise of the game..  

Unfortunately for me it's all a bit meh, and that includes this derby which is obviously not usually the case.

This virus just needs to fuck off.

Me too...

I will watch the game on Saturday but with a bag of nerves.

No meet up...no pubs and beer...no piss taking...no seeing the 'football crowd', you only see at games...its all a bit shit and there is certainly no buzz...us on a bad run doesnt help.

[JBZ]

Plainly, it's not the same as it was. However, we should perhaps savour what we have now because if it does all go 'tits up' things could be a lot worse.

[Wobbly Bob]

P5 W0 D0 L5 F0 A8

I’ll be up for some frustrated arm chair thumping come kick off on Saturday.

Didn’t have much against Oxford until that day in early 2012.
Yeah, there were the eggs lobbed into the Cuckoo Lane end back in the good old days but they weren’t aimed directly at me per se.
Stood in that ticket queue for hours in what felt like sub-zero temperatures.
The guy next to me left after about an hour as his wife managed to get tickets over the phone.
The people who had slept over at the front hadn’t taken their litter away.
Jeremy Wray showed up complete with the ultra-smug expression. No doubt planning the implementation of an online ticketing system.
Could barely move & talk by the time I got into the ticket office but managed to get one of the last tickets and there were still loads of people still waiting.
Being an irrational football the whole experience was of course Oxford’s fault.

So, to the great day itself.
Got into Oxford early in the hope that the closure of pubs by decree was somehow fiction not fact.
Ended up drinking coffee somewhere on Cornmarket Street.
A dry away day. The trip was dry. Dry. No beer. Dry.

Got to the ground in good time and mingled with the yellow hordes.
Saw some “ladies” of a certain age abusing the away coaches as they arrived.
They may have been from the projects not that far away.
The only positives from that day were PDC pointing out the bigger picture on the pitch afterwards and winning the charabanc lottery by not ending up on the bus that invariably gets wrecked on the way back to station.

At least it was possible to enjoy a few beers before the inevitable defeat on the next visit in 2016.
Needless to say that buses were not supplied, but managed to get back to the station ok without encountering any groups of roving Phil Mitchell lookalikes.

Haven’t had a look on their horrible forum.
But no doubt some have found the time for a bit of the macho posturing that normally accompanies this fixture.
Anyway, everybody should know by now that even our water is harder than Oxford.

And for some music.
They’ve got Ride, we’ve got Billie Piper.
Here’s a bit of choral shoe gaze that probably won’t feature on the pre match playlist.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

They've gone from having four stands with some really nice houses close by to three stands and Blackbird Leys

[4D]

I wouldn't be surprised if some away fans had ended up at The Templars Retail Park just a bit further north than the pink cow. Looks the same from above  

[Red Frog]

They've gone from having four stands with some really nice houses close by to three stands and Blackbird Leys

They've never had four stands. They used to have about ten at the Cow Shed.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

They've never had four stands. They used to have about ten at the Cow Shed.

😁

[4D]

They've never had four stands. They used to have about ten at the Cow Shed.

Yeah, the stand to the left that held about 50. The minnow ground 

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Yeah, the stand to the left that held about 50. The minnow ground  

 

[Flashheart]

I thought it had character myself. Better than the bland thing they're in now.

[Richie Wellen-Dowd]

I thought it had character myself. Better than the bland thing they're in now.

They simply went from one extreme type of shitness, to another.

[Richie Wellen-Dowd]

As for the game, I'm fully expecting a freak warm-up accident that leaves Curran as our only fit centre-back, then Wellens decides to bring himself on for the last 5, two-foots Tyler Smith putting him out for the season, scores an injury time own goal to give Oxford victory, before announcing his resignation on the pitch while holding a Salford scarf above his head.

[Abrahammer]

Proper ground The Manor, shame there are many left like that.

My final memory of it was after Turbo bagged us the win, leaving along Cuckoo lane behind Football Phil with him constantly shouting  “Cuckoo, Cuckoo, Cuckoo”  

[Jimmy HaveHave]

As for the game, I'm fully expecting a freak warm-up accident that leaves Curran as our only fit centre-back, then Wellens decides to bring himself on for the last 5, two-foots Tyler Smith putting him out for the season, scores an injury time own goal to give Oxford victory, before announcing his resignation on the pitch while holding a Salford scarf above his head.

Stormy weather forecast😁

[Ardiles]

I thought it had character myself. Better than the bland thing they're in now.

They're both awful, in different ways.  Whoever gave planning permission for the current ground - 5 miles from the middle of town, and opposite the local sewerage treatment facility - was having a joke at their expense.  The County Ground isn't perfect, but it's in just the right place - right at the centre of the town it represents.

I won't go misty-eyed about the Manor Ground.  I couldn't stand it back then either.  But I'm pleased I was there when we gave it a proper send off with the Steve Robinson game in 2001.